Having a mobile website is essential for your hotel, but what are the essentials of a mobile website?

With the continuous increase of mobile users, it’s important that your website be mobile-friendly. We’re seeing more and more customers who try to access a site that isn’t mobile friendly, getting frustrated with the lack of ease in searching the site, so they leave. This effects the site’s traffic numbers and increases the bounce rate.

If you’re going to keep up with the trend of mobile users increasing, then you need to make sure you have a responsive website. Studies show that the majority of users that encounter a mobile friendly site are more likely to make a purchase, while the majority who encounter a website that is not mobile-friendly are more likely to leave. So, as a business owner, you could be losing customers to the competition.

The benefit to having a mobile-friendly website is that it is easily viewed on smaller screens without compromising any of the website’s important information. Thus, making it easy for your customers to navigate their way through the site as if they were viewing it on a desktop or laptop computer. A customer who comes across a website that is not mobile-friendly is also apt to not do business with the company at all because the lack of a mobile-friendly website might lead one to believe that a business owner is not concerned with the ease of their customers’ experience.

Now that we’ve established why it’s important to adapt to the increase in mobile usage, let’s explore what the mobile website essentials are — what you need to make the most out of your customer’s mobile experience. First and foremost, your site needs to load quickly, meaning 5 seconds or less. Customers do not want to waste time waiting for a site to load. Typically customers will view websites on a mobile device because they are on the go, so the need for speed is critical for this audience. You should have mobile-friendly features, including, large buttons, visible navigation, and limited scrolling and pinching required. Make sure the booking widget or Book Now button is clearly visible as soon as the site opens so that there is no question in the customer’s mind as to how they need to complete a transaction.

Additionally, it is important to know that whether or not you have a mobile-friendly website will soon begin to impact your Google rankings. As business owners need to adapt to usage patterns of their customers, Google too must adjust their algorithms as well. Beginning in April, Google will be expanding their use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor. In simple terms, those sites that are mobile-friendly will move up in the ranking while those that aren’t will begin to lose their ranking status. Google’s purpose in doing this is to help provide higher quality search results for its users that are optimized for modern devices.

With each passing year the number of users on mobile devices will continue to increase. We have seen a clear pattern thus far. If you want to keep your current customers happy and attract new ones, then you need to be sure you’re doing what is necessary to have a mobile-friendly website.